September 2024 President’s Message

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to September! We have lots to update you on regarding DRS events and activities. 

First, excitement is building regarding our 33^rd annual meeting in Philadelphia (March 25-28, 2025):

1. ABSTRACTS: The deadline for abstract submissions is September 30, 2024. This deadline is expected to be final with no extensions. For tips on abstracts, please see this video from our recent Trainee Advisory Committee webinar. We have an outstanding team of abstract reviewers ready to begin their blinded review and expect to send decisions by mid-November.  
   • Please note one important change this year: we are willing to consider abstracts for material that has been (or will be) presented at other meetings within 12 months of the DRS meeting, provided that you can provide justification (e.g. a completely different audience) or explain how the content has evolved (e.g. analysis of additional cases). 
     
     
2. CONFERENCE PROGRAM AND REGISTRATION: We have a fantastic program planned for the annual meeting. Exciting new items for the 2025 program include:  
   • Two tracks for the preconference on Tuesday, March 25th, 2025.
   • Optional hands-on workshops on videofluoroscopy, endoscopy and high-resolution manometry on the Thursday afternoon. 
   • Celebration of our annual society award recipients at the President’s Reception on Wednesday, March 26th, 2025. 
   • On-demand virtual access to recordings of the conference talks via the meeting app with auto-captioning and auto-translation for registered conference participants. This material will be available for 30 days, with continuing education credits available for material viewed within the first 7 days. We hope this will enable participation by a larger international audience. 
   • Information regarding conference registration rates can be found on our website. Hotel reservations and registration will be opening soon. 
     
     
3. CONFERENCE BURSARIES are available, in several categories (e.g. physicians, SLPs, trainees, newcomers). These are awarded based on a random draw of eligible applicants.The application deadline is September 30, 2024.
   
   
4. RESEARCH CAREER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM: This important DRS program is available for early career investigators who are experiencing a current mentorship gap or have an unmet mentorship need. Applications are open and due by October 14, 2024. Successful candidates will be notified by mid December. More information is available in this YouTube video.
   
   
5. SCHOLARSHIPS AND AWARDS: Several of our awards require applications, due by December 1, 2024. For more information, please see this YouTube video.
   
   
6. 2026 CONFERENCE: The location and dates for our 34th annual meeting have been confirmed. We will be meeting in Aurora, Colorado (just outside Denver) from Wednesday, March 4 to Saturday, March 7, 2026. Please note the change from our usual Tuesday-Friday schedule and protect the time in your calendars now!

WEBINAR: We are pleased to announce our upcoming DRS webinar on the Developmental Physiology of Chewing: Research Background and Future Clinical Focus. The webinar will be held on September 18, 2024 at 1:00pm-2:00pm ET. As a reminder, DRS Members have access to our entire library of webinars through the DRS website.

CONFERENCE ABSTRACTS FROM 2022, 2023 and 2024: After a long delay, we are thrilled to announce that the conference abstracts from our 2022, and 2023 annual meetings are published in the Dysphagia journal. The 2024 abstracts should be published soon. As a DRS member, you have free access to the Dysphagia journal through our website.

MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS: We will be launching our annual membership renewal process soon. In order to update our records, we will NOT be using the auto-renewal process this year. Membership rates for 2025 will be $225 for full members and $75 for trainee members. As a step towards facilitating access and inclusion of dysphagia researchers and clinicians from around the world, we are very pleased to announce that members from low- and middle-income countries (as defined by the World Bank) will be offered a discounted membership rate of $75. Members from these countries will also be able to register for the annual meeting at a discounted rate.

As always, if you have questions, please feel free to reach out to me at catriona.steele@uhn.ca.

In the meantime, as we count down to the deadline, we look forward to receiving your abstracts by the end of this month (18 days to go!).